This post was going to be written up and shared no matter how long it took me, so here I am, finally.
You know the way that people you meet, events that happen to you or situations you find yourself in become so etched in your mind that they end up being replayed or worked into your dreams? Well, with the construction of Dream Solver, I have been aiming for a similar effect.
Last year, I attended a lecture by the mighty Dave Gibbons. He went over his design planning process for The Watchmen and explained how he had thought about the panels on more levels than simply showing an action or following a narrative. It made me realise that, as a comic artist, you can do so much with panels.
To say the least, my work on Dream Solver has been influenced by other artists, not just in terms of considering the comic’s construction, but also from a stylistic point of view. Since this is my first comic and I’m fresh out of University, I seem to have taken on other stylistic influences like a sponge, including the work of the likes of Chris Weston, Brian Bolland, Dylan Teague, Guy Davis, Cliff Robinson, and any other artist whose comics and books I have found my face in recently.
Some influences are more apparent than others. One panel in Dream Solver is an obvious reference to Brian Bolland’s cover for The Killing Joke, but I really couldn’t help it; the guy is a genius and the cover of the Killing Joke is beautiful, only my panel doesn’t drip with as much menace as Bolland’s joker!
Other influences or homages I like to try and hide, or at least make a little more difficult to spot, so that perhaps a second read or a more careful look at the pages may reveal something you didn’t spot the first time. Happy hunting!
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